Harry Maguire put in a man-of-the-match performance.
Manchester United defeated Aston Villa 2-1 in the 24th round of the 2023-24 Premier League (PL) season at Villa Park in Birmingham, England, at 1:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday. With the three points, United remains sixth in the league with 41 points, while Villa remains fifth with 46 points.
Despite the match being played at Villa’s home, United took the early lead. In the 17th minute, Rasmus Höjlund rattled the net from a corner kick, finishing off a ball that hit Maguire’s head in the box. Villa didn’t stand still. They attacked relentlessly, with 10 shots on target in the first half alone, but Andre Onana made a number of saves to deny them an easy opening in the United goal.
Villa’s onslaught continued in the second half. They had 13 shots on goal and eventually equalized. In the 21st minute, Onana blocked Clément Langlais’ shot from a corner, but Bailey connected with the loose ball and Douglas-Lewis scored the equalizer. Immediately after the goal, Lewis showed his joy with a vigorous shoulder-shaking dance routine.
But it was United who were the eventual winners. They broke the deadlock in the 41st minute when Scott McTominay headed home a cross from the right by Dalot. There would be no more goals, and United held on for a 2-1 victory.
While McTominay, Hoilearn, and Onana were the stars of the show, United legend Gary Neville, a pundit for Sky Sports in the UK, picked Maguire as the man of the match. “I thought he did well today,” said Roy Keane. Obviously, some people have given man of the match to defenders, but that doesn’t matter. The important thing is that Maguire is picking up the pace of his game,” he said.
On the day, Maguire played the full 90 minutes according to soccer stats outlet Footmob, recording one assist, an 80% pass completion rate (47 of 59), one chance created, three 카지노 tackles made, (75%), one interception, five clearances, three headers cleared, 80% ground ball won (four of five), and 100% aerial ball won (seven of seven). Her 8.4 rating was the second-highest behind Onana, who had an 8.8 rating.
Maguire was in the midst of a long slump at the start of the season. He was stripped of his captaincy after three years and his position was in jeopardy with transfer speculation. However, he began to put in consistently good performances in October and was named PL Player of the Month in November. After recovering from injury, he returned to the starting lineup and has played the last two games full-time.